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Russian health officials have reported what is believed to be the very first human case of H5N8 influenza (bird flu) to the World Health Organization.
“If confirmed, this would be the first time H5N8 has infected people,” a spokesperson for WHO Europe confirmed in a statement to CNN.
There are different strains of avian flu and new variations appear every year, similar to human flu viruses.
In most cases, the viral strains infect only birds and are commonly detected in poultry farm animals, where mass slaughter follows any reported outbreak to limit the spread. However, as stated earlier, humans infected with avian flu are not uncommon. Various strains are able to make the jump, especially for farm workers who come into close contact with bird species. Some of these outbreaks have triggered public health concerns in the past, as some strains of bird flu can be fatal.
The latest announcement reports seven poultry farm workers infected with a new strain of bird flu, H5N8, in southern Russia. The outbreak of the H5N8 virus in poultry was first reported in recent months in various regions of Russia.
The World Health Organization statement confirmed that those infected were “asymptomatic and no human-to-human transmission has been reported.”
The latest detection of H5N8 in humans could not have come at a worse time as the world is still battling the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a Bloomberg report, Anna Popova, Russia’s public health chief, said in a televised speech on Saturday:
“It doesn’t spread from person to person. But only time will tell how long it will take for future changes to overcome this obstacle, ”she said. The discovery of this strain “now gives us all around the world the time to prepare for possible mutations and the opportunity to respond in a timely manner and develop test systems and vaccines.”
Russian authorities are currently collecting more information on the cases, and the WHO has yet to officially confirm the reports.
If the virus were to mutate and spread from human to human, that would be of great concern, as previous transmissions of H5N1 and H7N9 influenza strains from birds to humans have resulted in a 60% and 39% death rate, respectively.
Right now our best method of dealing with avian flu is mass culling of birds to stop the spread once an outbreak is detected on a farm. Human cases are isolated and genetic changes in viral strains are closely monitored to predict whether the virus mutates in a way that makes human-to-human spread more likely.
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